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Above Image: THE DIE NEBENWELT MULTIVERSE TUNNEL. SET PHOTO. BUILT SET ON STAGE AT RIVERBEND STUDIOS. the TUNNEL IS 104’ LONG. SET PHOTO BY JAY KENT.

The Man in the High Castle is based on Philip K. Dick’s science fiction masterpiece that depicts an alternative history where the Nazis and Imperial Japan won World War Two. America and its allies all lost. The essential visual juxtaposition created by this idea affects every frame of the show.

From the pilot through the first three seasons of the show, clear distinctions in palette have been established between the three primary storytelling worlds. The Japanese Pacific States, which are controlled by the Imperial Japanese power structure, uses the colors of the Kempeitai military uniform, greens and browns mixed with watery aquatic colors to give a West Coast feel. The East Coast becomes the seat of Nazi control based in New York City. Its palette is in sober black, gray, and concrete/stone colors, with accents such as uniform khaki and Luftwaffe gray with red and silver trim. The Neutral Zone is the central area of the country that serves as a buffer between the two facist superpowers. A sanctuary where the resistance and persecuted people can survive, it has a multi-color palette that is all faded. Faded versions of past optimism in all colors.

One of the key visual themes that runs through all the design work is the concept of “The banality of evil.” The show uses this idea in every way possible to hold up a mirror to the present and show how each person makes moral choices, and how some are so easily willing to choose authoritarianism and fascism.

Season three provided opportunities to expand the world of John Smith as he rises through the German Reich. A way to show the banality of evil through a penthouse apartment. This new big stage build for John Smith’s character allowed an exploration of what a high-end Nazi colonial state administrator’s apartment might look like. The interior set for Smith’s apartment was built based on the Guinness building, which is a mid-century office building in Vancouver that was selected to play for the exterior. The interior set was built on a 6-foot platform and has a 200-foot wraparound day/night backing with an alternative New York skyline. J.C. Backings created the drop using their image catalogue and added the digitally rendered American Reich building where the United Nations building exists today. The set features extensive internal rigging to fly walls vertically for ease of shooting. The creative impulse behind the set was to give the rising political family a more powerful residence, reflecting the taste of the State, not the occupants themselves. The imposed style is intended to be cold and graphic, not homey. The bedroom in particular is purposefully cold and features “sad flowers” wallpaper. This is intended as a metaphor for the collapsing marriage between John and Helen.

A. SMITH APARTMENT. BUILT SET ON STAGE AT EAGLE CREEK STUDIOS STAGE 2.

B. SMITH APARTMENT. DINING ROOM. PRODUCTION STILL.

C. SMITH APARTMENT. LIVING ROOM. PRODUCTION STILL.

Designing the set was a lot of fun. I love SketchUp and did the initial model in back-and-forth SketchUp jam sessions with Set Designer Paul Sonski. I really enjoy working with Paul in this way. After that, Set Designer Megan Poss took the drawings through all the final preparation for construction. The brilliant guidance of Supervising Art Director Dean O’Dell carried the project through to its very best potential. Set decorators Jon and Lisa Lancaster just knocked it out of the park with several pieces of furniture, including vintage curved-lens TV cabinets containing LCD screens, built from scratch in their carpentry shop.

A. DENVER GRAND PALACE BAR. SET SKETCH BY DREW BOUGHTON ON IPAD.

B. DENVER GRAND PALACE BAR. PRODUCTION STILL.

C. DENVER GRAND PALACE BAR. SET PHOTO BY JAY KENT.

This season, the Neutral Zone was also developed further. The capital of the Neutral Zone, which the show modeled on Denver, was established. An interior bar set intended to be a crossroads of the world called The Denver Palace was built. This big stage build is a relic of the faded American Gilded Age, based on the feel of the Denver Brown Palace Hotel and Rick’s American Cafe from Casablanca. A lot of low arches were used in the set to stack up to camera and give a feeling of pressure bearing down from above. This set featured the extraordinary work of the paint department. The coordinator Darcy Yurchuk and forewoman Sara Wells and their team are always stars in my book. This set really showed off their talents, it was the kind of et that brings a smile when you first step onto it, just admiring the pure craft of it. It was drafted by Set Designer Austin Chuqiao Wang. Construction coordinator Alan Burdett and foreman Cameron Senum’s work on this set also filled me with awe.

The Neutral Zone world of the Jewish Resistance was also explored this season through Frank’s storyline at the Sabra Camp. The Sabra Camp is the secret base of the Jewish resistance in the Neutral Zone. The camp was established by the writers to be “hiding in plain sight” as a Catholic religious retreat. An existing western backlot town was used as the basis for the setting. A Catholic entrance gate and outdoor church were added with a large cross to make a strong visible Catholic impression. During preproduction, I had been looking at the mismatched colors of the western backlot town and trying to figure out how to make it work as a Catholic commune. It just was not working with all its various pastels from previous shows. I woke one morning knowing the whole set had to be painted white in order for the idea to work. So that is what happened, the crew painted the whole town. Literally, a broad stroke idea. Inside one of the barn structures, a stand-in temple was created using a custom built “salvaged relic” Star of David stained-glass window as the focal point of the set.

A. BUILT GATE ENTRANCE FOR SABRA CAMP. PHOTO BY JAY KENT.

B. SABRA CAMP LOOKING PAST SAMPSON’S TRUCK. SET PHOTO BY JAY KENT.

C. SET SKETCH FOR THE INTERIOR OF THE SABRA CAMP TEMPLE BY DREW BOUGHTON.

D. PHOTO OF THE SABRA CAMP TOWN AFTER BEING PAINTED WHITE, AGED AND DRESSED. PHOTO BY JAY KENT.

Another area of the visual story that expanded was the science fiction technology of world jumping.

The “Die Nebenwelt” tunnel set complex was created for the scripted action of the Nazis attempting, through evil science…to travel between the worlds of the multiverse. The arrogance and violence of their machine was key to the intent behind the design. The massive concrete mega-tunnel cutting through the earth into a natural anomaly was the result of numerous discussions about what it should look like to mechanically force characters from one world to another. For the actual moment of transition, a deliberately non-digital effects-based idea was selected. Concerned that a “CGI effect” would feel somehow cheap, it was decided to use in-camera lighting and exposure to tell the story. The big concrete tunnel is one hundred four feet long and it features a massive backlight rig to produce the intensity required to blow out the tunnel. All the cave walls are sculpted foam and every console and control desk is custom made with period playback graphics. What I like most about this set is how mid-century it is, its minimalism, it’s an early Bond film kind-of-thing, with much respect owed to Ken Adam’s amazing work. ADG